Bomb plot thwarted

last updated 8 January 2015

London

British police confiscated a half ton of bomb ingredients and arrested eight suspected Islamic terrorists this week in a huge operation across the country. Seven hundred officers raided 24 sites and turned up a large stash of ammonium-nitrate fertilizer, the main ingredient in the al Qaida bombs used in Nairobi, Bali, and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. The eight young men arrested, all British citizens of Pakistani descent, were suspected of belonging to a sleeper cell with possible links to al Qaida. Many of them lived near airports. “The threat from terrorism remains very real,” said Peter Clarke, head of counterterrorism. “The public must remain watchful and alert.”